Six members of the same family in Brazil fell ill after eating Christmas cake, and three died. A relative was arrested on suspicion of adding arsenic to it, local authorities announced Monday.
• Also read: Deaths caused by Christmas cake containing arsenic: investigation in Brazil
• Also read: Arsenic Christmas cake kills three members of the same family
The commissioner in charge of the investigation Marcos Veloso reported, during a press conference, “robust evidence” incriminating the woman suspected of the triple homicide last December 23 in Torres, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul ( south).
Her identity has not been revealed, but according to several Brazilian media, she is the daughter-in-law of the woman who prepared the cake.
Analyzes found very high levels of arsenic in the blood of the victims, in the remaining portions of the cake, but also in the flour used.
According to the commissioner, the guests noticed a “spicy” and “unpleasant” taste from the first bites and the cook immediately asked them to stop eating the cake.
But it was already too late.
Three sisters, the husband of one of them, the daughter and grandson of another fell ill.
Two of the sisters, aged 58 and 65, died after being hospitalized, as did the eldest’s daughter, who was 43. The three deaths occurred within hours of each other.
The third sister, aged 61, who prepared the cake, is still in hospital in stable condition, according to the latest medical bulletin.
The husband of one of the sisters and the 10-year-old child have left the hospital.
“It only takes 35 micrograms of arsenic to cause death in a person. In one of the victims, we found a concentration 350 times higher,” explained Marguet Mittman, director of the scientific police of Rio Grande do Sul, in the same press conference.
The commissioner said he had not yet formulated a hypothesis on the motive, ensuring that relations between the members of this family were “harmonious”, but that old “divergences” could explain this triple homicide.
Local police also requested the exhumation of the body of the ex-husband of the woman who baked the cake. He died in September of “food poisoning.”
